VALLEY FOCUS | Valleywide

Bids Being Sought for Drainage Project

The bidding process for the construction of storm drains in the north Valley will open today, an official from Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's office said.

Scheduled to begin in June, the Devonshire Storm Drain Unit 2 project will involve constructing nearly 13,000 feet of reinforced concrete drains in four major thoroughfares in Granada Hills, Mission Hills and San Fernando and three residential streets in Mission Hills, said Joel Bellman, press deputy for Yaroslavsky.

"These areas have been subjected to flooding of various types, either flooding that is serious enough to cause inconvenience or dangerous enough to cause widespread property damage," Bellman said. "When completed, the new storm drains will reduce damage to public and private structures and roadways."

Bellman said the construction contract will be awarded in May.

The project, administered by the Flood Control Division of the county Department of Public Works, is expected to be completed by January, he said.

Major streets to be affected by the project are Chatsworth Street, Chatsworth Drive and San Fernando Mission and Brand boulevards. Bellman said the streets will be reduced to one lane in each direction during construction.

Residential streets affected by the project will be closed to all but local traffic, he said. The streets are Burnet and Noble avenues and Los Alimos Street.

"There's going to be a bottleneck for a while, but hopefully it will be relatively short-lived and it will go back to normal when completed," Bellman said.

The bidding process will also open today for servicing flood-control gates, inspecting manhole covers, and cleaning sub-drains, overflow pipes and other structures throughout the county, said Bellman, who added that work on these projects will begin in April and is expected to be completed by September.